Cranbrook acquires Frank Lloyd Wright house

The Smith House in Bloomfield Hills, built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1950, has been donated to Cranbrook, which will open it up for tours.(Photo: James Haefner / Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research)

Correction: The Towbes Foundation donation of Smith House to Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research was incorrectly reported and Melvyn Maxwell Smith’s first name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story.

Cranbrook, known worldwide as an architectural set piece, is getting a new gem in its diadem — a Frank Lloyd Wright house.

The house was built in 1950 by Sara and Melvyn Maxwell Smith. The donation came from the Towbes Foundation.

“The Smith family always said they didn’t want this to just pass to another set of homeowners,” said Gregory Wittkopp, director of the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research. “The phrase they used was they wanted it to be ‘an educational resource.’ ”

Cranbrook will open the Bloomfield Hills house several times a month for tours from May to November.

The Smith House in Bloomfield Hills, built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1950, has been donated to Cranbrook, which will open it up for tours.(Photo: James Haefner / Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research)

The donation is a remarkable stroke of good fortune, one that other design schools would kill for.

“This is an incredible gift to Cranbrook,” said Minneapolis architect Nick Koch, who graduated from the high school in 1972. “Wright’s Usonian houses represent a significant chapter in 20th-century American residential architecture.”

“I’ll be sure to visit the next time I’m in town.”

The Frank Lloyd Wright Smith House has been left exactly as it was when Sara and Melvin Maxwell Smith lived in it.(Photo: James Haefner / Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research)

Many of Wright’s homes were built for the very rich, but Usonian houses were conceived for people of modest means.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Smith House has been left exactly as it was when Sara and Melvin Maxwell Smith lived in it.(Photo: James Haefner / Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research)

That certainly described the Smiths, both Detroit public schoolteachers. In 1941, just before the outbreak of war, they asked the great architect if he could design a home for just $5,000 — about $88,000 in today’s dollars.

Wright said he might be able to do it for $8,000, but when the house was finished nine years later, the price tag hit $20,000.

Financially, it was an astonishing feat for the Smiths.

“At the time of construction,” said Wittkopp, “they were living in public housing in Detroit and each making $35 a week as schoolteachers.”

To keep the price down, Melvyn Smith acted as his own contractor. Additionally, Wright relied on photographs and topographical surveys to design the structure, rather than making a costly site visit. (He did come once the house was finished.)

Cranbrook will open the house several times a month for tours from May to November.(Photo: James Haefner / Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research)